This plug-in is an easy to use distance "pan-pot" based on several psycho-acoustic models. The idea is to give mixing engineer a reliable tool which allows him to manipulate the "depth" of several sound source in a straight forward and convincing manner.

Forgive my ignorance, but it seems that this plugin benefits mostly those who record bands. Can anyone mention various situations where Proximity can be used for those who create electronic/Dance music?

Woody Aki wrote:Forgive my ignorance, but it seems that this plugin benefits mostly those who record bands. Can anyone mention various situations where Proximity can be used for those who create electronic/Dance music?

Good question!

Proximity is basically just a generic tool which combines several psycho-acoustic facts into one fader control. These "clues" usually work well, no matter which music genre.

IMHO, electronically generated music often sounds flat and not very convincing stereo-image wise. Our ear/brain feels much more comfortable if the mix contains some acoustic clues known from nature. It becomes easier for the brain to "sort" all infos and rewards the listener with a more impressive experience.

PROXIMITY can be used in both "directions". That is, you can correct an already present impression of distance/depth, but you can also add an impression of depth to electronic sources.

Practically, you can try some of the following experiment:

Use an instance per track and activate "true delay", "air absorb", "width" and "reflections A" (oops, just wondering why we don't have such a preset yet). Adapt to taste, try to use "PROXIMITY" instead of the regular gain in your mixer. It should quickly create a much more convincing "image" than a simple "gain" mix. The true delay will slightly shift all tracks in time relative to each other, lower level sounds will be more damped than proximate event, like in nature. Additionally, the reflections will greatly help to brain to better sort all sounds on the z axis which will sound clearer, deeper and wider.

So, the easiest approach is to use Proximity as a more natural alternative to the gain faders of your mixer.

Hope this helps you somehow!

@anyone: Thanks for the flowers! I'm working on the mac port for the feedback comp since a while, but apple punished be with lion (I bought a modern imac with lion preinstalled, I should have known better ), so that any attempt to build my plugins (UIs) in that xcode mess just fails and fails and fails (if xcode doesn't crash before). Vlad takes a slightly approach to his UI programming, it's not possible to simply "port" the code, it needs a significant amount of work. No fun, I tell you However, I'm still hoping and waiting for apple to finally fix their mess.